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The Cardinals are basically going to be set up the same next season — OK, we wait for official word on what Larry Fitzgerald is going to do — because after almost all of the vacant head coaching jobs have been filled, Harold Goodwin remains in Arizona. The Cardinals’ offensive coordinator had three head coaching interviews, but those teams all went with other candidates: The Jaguars with Doug Marrone, the Bills with Sean McDermott, and the Rams with Sean McVay.

The move to McVay was an interesting one for the Rams. He’s 30, younger than current Cardinals players Fitzgerald, Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton and Frostee Rucker (McVay does turn 31 in a couple of weeks.) He’s an offensive guy, brought in to develop QB Jared Goff and that wretched Rams offense. He did, however, hire one of the best defensive coordinators around in Wade Phillips — a guy McVay can lean on with Phillips a one-time head coach, and certainly a guy who can make the Rams’ impressive defensive talent work. Phillips was excellent in his stint with the Broncos.

In the meantime, the one team without a new coach (and without a GM at this point) is the San Francisco 49ers. Cardinals vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough is scheduled to interview for the GM spot today, although the Niners will have as many as nine GM interviews completed by the time it’s all said and done. The rumor mill has the 49ers eventually hiring Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as coach, although we’ll see how it plays out — the Patriots seem likely to have a few weeks left in their season.

23 Responses
to “Coaches, interviews and the NFC West”

I love Jefferson and at 24 he would be a great long term sign, but I was reading that he could get 6 million year average and since Ty is averaging 12 to 13 million…. Dam… that is close to 20 million year average a lot of money to be paying for two safeties.. That is Kam and Earl Thomas money? Ty better bounce back next year!!!!!

Darren, now that the Chargers have moved to L.A. Can someone talk to fox sports to get Yuma moved to Cardinals territory. This way we can see the beginning of Cardinals games when the early games run late. Especially when the early games go into overtime and end in a tie. Of course that is for the games we don’t make the trek to the toaster.

I’m glad we still have Coach Goody. Terry McDonough I believe is very effective for the Cards, but I can only tell circumstantially by results. Terry will be a GM eventually, in my opinion. I have to cheer for Josh Mauro’s 2 year contract.The Steeler fans were ticked off when we signed him and now we’ll have him for two more years! It is important to have at least one white guy and a polynesian on defense. Big Ken – I also am a huge fan of Coach Mitchell. The Cards brought back a legacy of “the jump cut” when they named Stump running backs coach. He could turn on a dime and now we see it with David J.

The Rams’ hiring of Wade Phillips is yet another reason why the Cardinals look more like pretenders than contenders, despite BA’s all-in propaganda.

In the last three years, the Cardinals had two chances to pursue Wade Phillips, arguably one of the top three 34 DCs ever—and instead tabbed James Bettcher who, through little fault of his own, is still learning on the job, and quite honestly, cannot even be remotely in the same conversation as Wade Phillips.

Think of it—if you are Wade Phillips, who would you rather coach for in 2017, the Rams or the Cardinals? He now has to try to convert the Rams to the 34 and the Rams’ offense is going to take some time to develop under a young 2nd year QB and a first time head coach.

I agree – Wade Phillips WAS a good hire for the Rams. And the Rams have already been good on defense. At the very least, we know there is talent on that side of the ball. I’d say their defense just got better.

If it happens, I think Josh McDaniel will also be a good hire by the 49ers to be their HC. Geez, I guess if you want to be a HC in the NFL, you have to take from the spots that become available. And typically, those aren’t great places to be at those times. But, man….to go from the New England Patriots to the San Francisco 49ers? That will be quite a change. Imagine going from Tom Brady to Colin Kaepernick??? Good lord.

So….. Is that a “no” to my earlier question? It’s not like I asked a question about D. Wash! Or your thoughts about fitz retiring, or whether the cardinals will sign Campbell, or ask about Jefferson and/or swearinger or about who the cardinals should draft.

Georgiebird…
I bet Seattle was thinking the same thing after our even more decisive loss to the Panthers last year! I’ll give it to Seattle, they at least put up a better fight than we did. I don’t get your logic that this is good for the Cardinals in 2017? It seems you believe that doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome is our formula for success?
The Rams are making some bold moves in shaking things up while we do nothing, even the 9ers are working on a complete overhaul in an attempt to get back to their previous glory days, and the Seahawks will continue to get back to their previous form. And, while our window of opportunity may have
closed, I don’t see the NFC West as being the “worst” overall division when you still have the AFC North, AFC South, NFC South giving us a run for the title. Most of the teams are a work in progress with at least a map and a flashlight!

* Bizarre that the Colts’ owner and CEO Jim Irsay, despite indicating to GM Ryan Grigson and HC Chuck Pagano that they will be back—spoke to Jon Gruden about becoming HC. Apparently, Gruden would only consider the job if Irsay fired Grigson and gave Gruden full power of the roster decisions. And Irsay balked. Now what?

* Pagano wouldn’t be out of a job for long—BA would scoop him up in a nano-second, probably as AHC and the chief overseer of the defense. Interestingly, it was Pagano who hired James Bettcher out of the college ranks as his personal assistant in 2011.

* Hot-lanta, wow. Not only are they playing at an elite level, they look like they could become a perennial juggernaut with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, the dynamic RB duo of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman and with Dan Quinn building a young, fast, hard-hitting defense.

* Atlanta gave up a lot in the Julio Jones trade, but that’s looking real good right now. Jones is a fast version of Fitz. Not quite hands-wise, but pretty close.

* The Seahawks’ first drive was a work of art. But then so was the Falcons’. Two long, multi-play drives that consumed 17 minutes. Superb.

* The Cardinals returned the favor on the Seahawks this year by beating them at home late in the season and planting those added seeds of doubts heading into the playoffs. The Cards missing Honey Badger and the Seahawks missing Earl Thomas, their respective lightning rods. Both teams were crushed on the road in their second game.

* It should be a very interesting off-season in the NFC West with the Seahawks and Cardinals trying to reload, with key decisions about aging, but still valuable veterans, while the Rams and 49ers rebuilding under new coaching staffs.

* Classic Patriots’ defense on display last night—bracketing the #1 WR in Hopkins and putting their #1 CB Butler on the Texans’ #2 WR Fuller. The interception FS McCourty made on Hopkins was perfectly baited.

* What Dion Lewis is for the Pats (receiving TD, kickoff return TD, rushing TD) is what i envision Christian McCaffrey could do for the Cardinals. First we saw with the Falcons how dynamic their offense is with 2 versatile RBs in Freeman and Coleman, both of whom are hard runners and outstanding receivers. Their offense does not skip a beat because of how good both Freeman and Coleman are—and they can stay fresh for their respective shifts. One could easily make the case that Lewis was the MVP last night. He certainly was the game changer.

* The curious case of Brock Osweiller—people seem to forget that this was his first year as full-time starter—and in a new system there were bound to be growing pains. Now people are writing him off—but not only did he play well last week—he played very well in spots last night and threw two picture perfect passes dropping the ball in the bucket to Fedorowicz and Fuller, only both sure TD passes were dropped.

* Was happy to see Ray Lewis mock Tom Brady for his tantrum after getting hit a nan-second after throwing the ball away on a scramble. Brady is an exceptional QB, no question, but tantrums like the one he threw last night are why some people harbor such disdain for him.

* Michael Floyd’s assimilation into the Pats’ offense has been slow—while the pass Brady threw him on the slant was a tad too ahead of the route, Floyd didn’t explode off his break as he should have—which is the Achilles heel of his game, his tentative play on short to intermediate passes over the middle.

* CB Logan Ryan made a lot of money for himself last night. He is one of the UFA CBs I’ve been hoping the Cardinals sign. Imagine this—Ryan as a CB was the leading tackler on the Patriots’ defense, with 93 tackles. Now—let’s remember how Belichick plays Ryan as the team’s #2 CB. He assigns him to cover the #1 WR where he can play super aggressive versus pass and run because he knows he has FS help over the top, as the Pats’ bracket the #1 WR. Could you imagine if the Cardinals did that and put Pat P. on the other team’s #2? That would force teams to try to throw at Peterson in single coverage. Man, that would present teams with a dilemma, wouldn’t it?

@ Clssylssy-
looked again at the NFC South and the AFC North & South. Tried to make a case for the NFC West against those three divisions and still feel the NFC West is the weakest- maybe easily the weakest.